It is, in fact, a fulacht fia, one of the most common yet least-understood monument types in the Irish landscape. The term refers to a cooking place, typically Bronze Age in origin, where stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil. Over repeated use, the shattered, heat-spent stones were raked out and piled up, gradually forming the horseshoe or rectangular mounds that survive today across the island in their thousands.

This particular example at Gortnaglogh measures roughly 8.5 metres on its longer axis and stands about 1.2 metres high, its profile partially softened by vegetation. The proximity to a spring is entirely typical; fulachtaí fia are almost always found close to a reliable water source, which was essential to their function. What makes the site quietly notable is that a second fulacht fia lies only about 15 metres to the south, suggesting repeated or sustained activity in this small area, perhaps over generations, perhaps by different groups making use of the same convenient spring.